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| Best investment bank: Goldman Sachs |
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| Also shortlisted: BAML, Deutsche Bank and HSBC |
The broker-dealer model is dead! Long live the universal banking model!
That’s the cry going up from most corners of the global investment banking industry today. And a look at Euromoney’s shortlist for the award this year would suggest it rings true.
Revenues and market shares at the biggest universal banks are on the march. Deutsche Bank has reduced its costs and risk-weighted assets, and gained market share. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is leveraging its scale and balance sheet not just in its US heartlands, but also in Europe and Latin America. HSBC is expanding its client base and core capabilities, and is a force to be reckoned with wherever it competes.
Two firms that could easily have been on the shortlist, JPMorgan and Citi, are formidable competitors across both flow and event businesses.
But there is usually an exception. And whichever way you choose to look at it, Goldman Sachs has had an exceptional year.
Exceptional not just because its model has been written off, but because it has apparently overcome a campaign against its reputation in the industry and even in broader society that would have finished off firms that were not as strong.